Tag Archives: marijuana

With 2012 in the books, it’s time to look back at the landslide of legislation, lawsuits and judicial decisions that have had far-reaching effects on Americans’ access to health care, marriage, voting, Second, Fourth and Seventh Amendment rights and more. Lawyers.com takes a peek at the top consumer legal stories of the year:   Obamacare survives legal challenges: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is set to change the face of health care as we know it, …

A Texas state trooper is suspended with pay and will face a grand jury next month for conducting a body cavity search of two women on the side of a highway near Irving, Texas, in full view of passing traffic and a male trooper. Angel Dobbs and her niece Ashley Dobbs filed a lawsuit after trooper Kelley Helleson used her fingers to search the women’s vaginas and anuses without asking for consent or explaining that the search was about to …

Marijuana stores in Colorado and Washington won’t be open for at least a year, but new laws legalizing the drug took full effect in both states this month. Washington’s Initiative 502 kicked in on Dec. 5, sparking a midnight gathering of marijuana enthusiasts near Seattle’s Space Needle to celebrate the occasion. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper formalized Amendment 64 into his state’s constitution just days later. Though President Obama said there wouldn’t be a federal campaign against individual marijuana users in Colorado …

When Washington voters legalized marijuana last month, they also accepted a new legal standard for toking and driving. Just as .08 percent is a Washington driver’s limit for blood alcohol content, five nanograms per milliliter of blood is their new limit for active THC, marijuana’s psychoactive component. In most recreational users, active THC will drop below that threshold within two to three hours of using marijuana. But among the heaviest users, active THC levels may never drop below five nanograms, …

Law enforcement agents do not need a warrant to install surveillance cameras on private property, a federal judge affirmed last month. The question came before district Judge William Griesbach in Wisconsin after Drug Enforcement Agency agents uncovered a massive marijuana growing operation with the help of cameras they set up in the yard of the suspected grow house. Defendants Manuel Mendoza and Marco Magana were arrested and face life in prison plus $10 million in fines after the DEA found …